[eng18ine]

howdy all. so i kinda started this whole build thread thing in the welcome noobs section and decided to create a new one here so iv had the bike for about a month now? maybe a little longer. as of tuesday november 12th iv done lots of work. the bike didnt run when i got it. had to clean the carb a couple times, new voltage regulator, new fuel lines and petcock. but finally she fired up and held an idle so i was happy. as far as everything else, i riped all plastics off, tucked the taillight under the seat, tucked some of the wires on the inside of the frame so it looks cleaner, moved the ignition to under the seat, added a new headlight, and new blinkers and thats about it for now. lots planned for the furute but its my first real expierence with a bike so its a learning process. feel free to add some critisism or advice or any other good ideas. thanks! here we go!

so when i got it, every single plastic piece was cracked, missing parts, had holes in it, missing screws, you name it it was destroyed.

its not that great of a picture but the very first thing i did after unloading the bike was tear it apart

the first real modification was moving the seat. it aint pretty but it will do until i get the time to cut the seat in half.

the next thing i did was move the ignition to right under the seat. that was pretty straight forward. just had to add a couple of feet to the ignition wires. i also tucked the voltage regulator under the seat in the little battery box.

next was the headlight. removed the factory gauges, i still dont know what to do with all of the wires and harnesses that are left over but i guess thats for another day. headlight is an acerbic cyclops. people say it has a bad night output but i think its fine once you get it aimed right. i would reccomend it.

finally, todays progress was hiding the wire harness that ran on the outside of the frame on the "go and stop" side of the bike. the wires had to be extended a foot or so to make it to where i wanted it but it came out pretty nicely.

and well thats it for now. ill try to keep you guys updated. this isnt really a high budget build. i dont own a welder, i dont own a pipe bender, i dont own any fancy tools. im just a recently graduated student tryin to do something cool. im an avid hunter, and fishermen so it wont be something everyone is used to. stay tuned.

 

[piester]

looks like a healthy start. to warn you, you will probably get flamed for that headlight. they are kind of like the herpes of the streetfighter world haha. but its all in good fun so dont take it too seriously. id imagine you will want to change headlights after the first time you ride at night with no street lights.

 

[eng18ine]

It's actually not that bad. I took it down some back country roads last night. With them aimed right they do a decent job


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[Davey t]

ha ha that is exactly the head light i removed frome my bike as soon as i got it thay are truly crap shit bulbs and they look tacky in my opinion the head light is one of the most important and hardest things to get right because a bad headlight can make a nice bike look shit.
Also the r/r you put in the battery box gets very hot so needs to be bolted to a metal plate and needs good air flow this is your charging unit so if it fails it will kill the battery and the bike might run a bit rough..

Good work so far if you need any advice dont hesitate to ask and check out my cbr (link in sig)

 

[eng18ine]

ha ha that is exactly the head light i removed frome my bike as soon as i got it thay are truly crap shit bulbs and they look tacky in my opinion the head light is one of the most important and hardest things to get right because a bad headlight can make a nice bike look shit.
Also the r/r you put in the battery box gets very hot so needs to be bolted to a metal plate and needs good air flow this is your charging unit so if it fails it will kill the battery and the bike might run a bit rough..

Good work so far if you need any advice dont hesitate to ask and check out my cbr (link in sig)

i dont mind the headlight. i think it looks kinda cool. it is somewhat temporary though just to get the bike street legal for testing reasons but i may keep it. and throw HID's in it or something.

but i made sure the R/R has some airflow in there but i guess its not enough? im not really sure whats going on. my bike has no gauges as of now and for some reason my blinkers wont work unless the engine is moving at a decent pace. usually about 5k rpm or higher. but once i plug my gauges in, it works without issue so who knows. anyone have any idea?

 

[Davey t]

i think in the gauges there is a light that flashes with the indicaters and with out it pluged in it dosent compleat the circit you need to find the right wiers for the light and bridge them

 

[eng18ine]

i think in the gauges there is a light that flashes with the indicaters and with out it pluged in it dosent compleat the circit you need to find the right wiers for the light and bridge them

i figured that was it. that still doesnt explain why the blinker works while riding though. but i guess ill find out as soon as my new gauges come in.

 

[Davey t]

yeah dose seem a bit strang do you have the same or diferent problem with any other lights ????

 

[eng18ine]

yeah dose seem a bit strang do you have the same or diferent problem with any other lights ????

brake light and headlight works just fine.

 

[eng18ine]

so iv decided to do what all you guys suggested. im picking up a lincon welder tomorrow. im workin on tools! but heres some progress. a couple of days ago i got around to throwing a cheap chinese guage in(im aware its not straight, mount needs some work), shorten the seat and subframe. i even threw some points in there for a little meaner look. oh and i macked up the frame covers? im not sure what to call them.

 

[dieslowlyMF]

I will second the R/R comment. The Honda R/R's are notorious for failing and not being able to get rid of the heat fast enough will accelerate the death. Also, keep in mind that the less power you are consuming, the more heat the R/R needs to get rid of. So when you take out running lights and the incandescent lights of the gauge, that's more energy that the bike produces that the R/R now has to get rid of. In building my Kawasaki, I eliminated almost all the energy draw except the headlight and ignition system and to prevent from killing the R/R (and to get better lighting, of course) I put in a high wattage headlight bulb to try to balance things back to stock power consumption.

I had to get a new R/R on my CBR because the old one died. It also took out the connector going to it, so I had to buy a new connector and R/R. I got a version of the Honda R/R that had extra fins in the molded part and I also mouted mine to an extended strip of aluminum for additional heatsinking. I cheaped out and got both the connector + wires and the R/R for like $20 or $30 on ebay (and with a few thousand miles I on it, its still good), so its not the end of the world if it does go bad.

 

[eng18ine]

I will second the R/R comment. The Honda R/R's are notorious for failing and not being able to get rid of the heat fast enough will accelerate the death. Also, keep in mind that the less power you are consuming, the more heat the R/R needs to get rid of. So when you take out running lights and the incandescent lights of the gauge, that's more energy that the bike produces that the R/R now has to get rid of. In building my Kawasaki, I eliminated almost all the energy draw except the headlight and ignition system and to prevent from killing the R/R (and to get better lighting, of course) I put in a high wattage headlight bulb to try to balance things back to stock power consumption.

I had to get a new R/R on my CBR because the old one died. It also took out the connector going to it, so I had to buy a new connector and R/R. I got a version of the Honda R/R that had extra fins in the molded part and I also mouted mine to an extended strip of aluminum for additional heatsinking. I cheaped out and got both the connector + wires and the R/R for like $20 or $30 on ebay (and with a few thousand miles I on it, its still good), so its not the end of the world if it does go bad.

I'm content with the headlight dimming for now but once I box everything out, the R/R will be mounted to some metal with vents under it so it can get nice cool air all the time.


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[dieslowlyMF]

Your headlight dimming/blinker thing is a separate issue. You likely have something hooked up improperly.

 

[eng18ine]

Your headlight dimming/blinker thing is a separate issue. You likely have something hooked up improperly.

We'll the blinker works now. All I did was wire in a gauge with indicator lights and now they work. Only problem now is the headlight

 

[evillani]

I know this is a stupid question and i looked over the thread again to make sure im not completely retarded but what does R/R stand for?

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[eng18ine]

Regulator/rectifier. It converts the random voltage that the stator puts out into a constant 14 volts


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[ZipTie]

what kind of guage did u use and how much did it cost and does it work well? imbuilding the same bike.

 

[eng18ine]

Honestly it is a cheapish Chinese gauge off of ebay. I don't remember exactly how much it was but it works great. I had it out in the rain for a couple hours in the back of my truck. And it is completely water proof it seems. It comes with it's own speedometer which you just put a magnet on the rotor and mount the rest where the stock cable goes. The speed is a little tricky to dial in and I haven't figured out how to get the rpm right on. If you want I can post a video or some pictures of it if you want